Biden used an autopen for more than 1,500 pardons, but only hand-signed the one for his son Hunter

During his final weeks in the White House, ex-President Joe Biden granted more than 1,500 pardons and commutations, in what his team called the largest single-day act of clemency in U.S. history. However, among all those documents, only one was signed in the president's own handwriting: the pardon for his son, Hunter Biden.

The rest of the acts of clemency were signed with an autopen, a device that replicates the president's signature automatically. Now, that procedure—legal but controversial—is at the center of a Department of Justice review amid growing questions about Biden's mental capacity in the final months of his term and the real control he exercised over key government decisions.

Suspicions of cover-up

In a recently released memo, Trump warned that the abuse of the autopen constituted a threat to the presidential institution: "The American public was purposefully shielded from discovering who wielded the executive power," he wrote. For months, the president claimed, Biden's aides monitored his appearances, leaked his conversations and used his automated signature to sign high-impact documents, such as nominations, policy changes and clemency acts.

The Hunter case and the handwritten signature

The only document signed directly by Joe Biden was the one granting a full pardon to his son, Hunter Biden, in December 2024. The pardon covered any potential federal crimes committed between 2014 and 2024, including the three gun-related felony charges for which he had already been convicted, plus a tax evasion investigation for more than $1.4 million.

The decision came after months of public promises by the former president not to interfere in the case. "I hope Americans will understand why a father and a president would come to this decision," Biden said at the time.